As the famous saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait”. Delayed gratification – person’s ability to forgo a smaller reward now for a larger reward in the future – has been linked to better life outcomes as demonstrated by the often cited Stanford Marshmallow experiment and others. In most cases though, it requires a degree of self-control not easily achievable in today’s fast paced, ever-changing world with new mobile devices, protocols and technologies.

If you are one of the Cisco Wireless customers currently deploying Release 7.0 MD and waiting for the next Cisco Wireless Software Maintenance Deployment Release, the wait is over!

In the last MSE blog, my colleague Lucy discussed wIPS as a feature of MSE Release 7.4. To further the conversation around Release 7.4, I’m going to describe the new licensing scheme.

We at Cisco believe strongly in the mantra of valuing customer satisfaction. Feedback we received on the Mobility Services Engine (MSE) licensing scheme inspired us to make the following adjustments in a new licensing scheme, which is available as a part of the MSE software release for version 7.4 along with Advanced Location Services:

AP-based licenses to align with Controller and Cisco Prime Infrastructure: In the earlier releases, you needed to plan and try to predict how many Endpoints you expected on the network before buying the license. Now it’s easier to buy Location Services licenses by simply buying based on the AP count and what services from the MSE you anticipate deploying for your network.

Simplified WIPS SKUs: Adaptive wIPS licensing scheme was already AP-based so we just reduced the number of SKUs(1-AP, 100-AP and 1000-AP SKUs) for Local Mode and Monitor Mode licenses. Read More »

There’s a lot of collaboration technology out there and deciding which technology to invest in can be daunting. How often have you heard of a company making a major investment in technology for it to become “shelfware” and never see deployment? How often have you heard of a company that’s deployed a technology, yet nobody in the company is willing to use it? How often have you heard of a company that has several products from different vendors that do exactly the same thing?

It doesn’t take much to realize that each of these situations has a negative impact and the cause of each situation stem from different reasons, but usually with the best intentions. Shelfware occurs because of undeployed licenses in ELA’s or quantity purchases for better per seat pricing. Unfortunately, the business doesn’t grow and the company is obligated to pay for unused licenses. Other times, a company deploys a product with great features that is too complex or doesn’t integrate well with workflows and remains unused. Lastly, individual departments may make purchase decisions based on their needs without consulting IT or other departments resulting in redundant solutions that compete internally with each other.

In considering collaboration strategy, it is key to consider Read More »

Which tool is more important: a stud finder or a hex wrench? You don’t need to be terribly tool-savvy to know there’s a place and a time for each to shine; a stud finder would come in handy to hang a heavy shelf but be useless when adjusting a bike derailleur.

When it comes to employee collaboration, the “go-to tools” are multiplying as the workspace is changing. Some employees still do the bulk of their work from behind a desk at company headquarters; others split their time between the office and more on-the-go locales; still others need “full mobility” with access to the best software collaboration offerings available so work can happen in coffee shops, airplanes, hotel rooms—wherever. To support these shifts in the way work gets done, Cisco announced some big changes to its unified communications licensing scheme this week at its virtual sales conference, GSX.

With today’s announcement, Cisco is now:

– offering software-only licensing. Prior to this, getting Cisco unified communications meant acquiring a license and a Cisco phone. No more; now, Cisco’s UC offerings can be managed and deployed as a true software platform. While many will still choose to start with a hardware phone, others will choose another device, like a PC, a tablet or even a smartphone as their main communication and collaboration tool. It is now up to you. Read More »

As I shared in my previous blog regarding the announcement of Cisco Unified Communications (UC) 9.0, flexibility is a key focus of that new release. Based on what we’re hearing from our customers, we are providing solutions that accommodate different business needs and user requirements. It’s all about empowering you to work the way you want to work, the way you need to work.

What are the new drivers? To start, with Cisco UC 9.0 we introduce a flexible licensing model and tools where you can purchase and manage licenses. We address the common user types of desk-less, desk-bound, hybrid, and mobile. My colleague, John Marshall, recently blogged about Cisco’s user-centric licensing strategy – please take a look for more details.

Around the growing trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), this release not only supports Read More »

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